It is potentially confusing that "program", "preset", "voice", "instrument" are all basically the
same concept. It's just that Soundfonts and midi files use different terminology.
24bit wav files created won't open in Windows Media Player, but they are valid and
will open in Audacity among other programs.
This program supports the older timidity method of using .pat files. First, open a midi file.
1) You can use an existing .cfg, like the cfg for eawpats or freepats.
- Audio->"Choose Soundfont..."
- In the window that comes up, click Change... to change the current soundfont.
- Notice that near the bottom of the open dialog,
"files of type" can be changed to "Timidity Configuration File (.cfg)". choose that, and open the file.
- It shouldn't matter what directory that .cfg file is in.
- Now, playback will use that .cfg file.
2) Also, individual .pat files can be chosen for individual voices.
In fact, some voices can be from .pat and some can be from .sf2 at the same time.
- Audio->"Choose Soundfont..."
- In the window that comes up, click Customize.
- Choose an instrument in the list on the left.
- In the right, click Choose soundfont...
- Notice that near the bottom of the open dialog,
"files of type" can be changed to "Patch File (.pat)". choose that, and open a patch file.
Neither of those, though, work in Linux as of now.
The cfg is apparently overridden by the default Timidity configuration file in /etc/timidity.
The program has to be run in a writable directory. This may be fixed in a later version.
In Linux, when manually specifying a .cfg configuration file, it is apparently overridden
by the default Timidity configuration file in /etc/timidity.
In Linux, this program uses the x86 binary "sfubar" for the SoundFont information tool.
If running a non x86 system, (or an os with a different binary format like mac os)
and want to run that tool, you may need to recompile sfubar.
The source and makefile are in ./soundfontpreview/sfubar-src/
Place the compiled binary sfubar in the directory ./soundfontpreview
sfubar is a program by Ben Collver that can create and work with SoundFont files. bmidi to wave uses it to get information about voices from the soundfont. Here it is if you are interested:
Source
Windows binary, doesn't require cygwin.
